Four years later, Humphries becomes QB Redskins thought he could be

ON THE NFL

October 09, 1994|By VITO STELLINO

When Mark Rypien was injured in the third game of the Washington Redskins' 1990 season, the feeling around Redskin Park was that Stan Humphries would step in and eventually eclipse him as a quarterback because he was a better natural athlete.

That's the way it eventually worked out. It just took four years to happen.

Humphries, now with the San Diego Chargers, will bring a 4-0 record into his duel with Joe Montana of the Kansas City Chiefs today while Rypien is sitting behind -- of all people -- Vinny Testaverde in Cleveland.

How the two players got to their present posts, though, is a saga nobody could have imagined in 1990.

In his first four starts for the Redskins in 1990, Humphries was 2-2. Both losses were close ones (24-20 and 21-10) to the New York Giants, who were heading to the Super Bowl.

But in the Joe Gibbs era, there was no slack for young quarterbacks. They were expected to win. In the next game against Detroit Lions, he was yanked when he fell behind 35-14, and Jeff Rutledge rallied the team to a 41-38 victory.

Gibbs decided to start Rutledge the next Monday night in Philadelphia. In what became known as the "body bag" game, the Eagles knocked Rutledge out. Humphries came on in relief and was knocked out for the season with a knee injury.

Humphries' Redskins career was effectively over. Rypien came back and took the Redskins to the playoffs that year and to the Super Bowl the next year.

Humphries, meanwhile, irritated Gibbs because he didn't stay at Redskin Park to work out in the off-season.

"A lot of the veteran guys were married with kids and lived there. I wanted to go back home [to Louisiana]. Maybe I didn't work out as hard as I should have. . . . It wore on a couple of the coaches. They didn't like that," Humphries said.

During training camp in 1992 when John Friesz (now the backup in Washington) was injured, general manager Bobby Beathard, who had drafted Humphries, traded for him.

With Rypien coming off a Super Bowl year, the Redskins seemed set at quarterback.

No one expected that Gibbs would leave after the 1992 season, that Rypien would get hurt last year and a new coach (Norv Turner) would come in and go with a rookie quarterback (Heath Shuler). Rypien, facing a pay cut, left for Cleveland.

The result is that while Shuler is struggling with on-the-job training, Humphries is leading an unbeaten team in San Diego and Gibbs will be interviewing him today on the NBC pre-game show.

It's strange how it all worked out and how close Humphries came to oblivion.

"Another year or so with the Redskins, I might have been washed away out of the league," Humphries said.

Instead, he's battling Montana with a perfect record on the line.

The bid

St. Louis is expected to put its best foot forward in a meeting with Los Angeles Rams executive vice president John Shaw this week.

St. Louis is expected to give Shaw everything he asked for on his wish list, including paying off $30 million in bonds on Anaheim Stadium. But the city is still scrambling to sell its 100 luxury boxes at its new domed stadium. It's at about 86 and hopes to have a sellout before meeting with Shaw.

St. Louis' strongest pitch may be the low-key demeanor of Wal-Mart heir Stan Kroenke, the city's money man. Unlike Orioles owner Peter Angelos, he's making no public statements and isn't asking Shaw to make a decision by any particular time. Shaw likes the low-profile approach.

Kroenke's also not expected to demand majority control of the team by any specified date the way Angelos is. Owner Georgia Frontiere wants to maintain a majority interest indefinitely.

Angelos said he's not making any ultimatums, but the Rams may view it that way.

Salary cap wars

Gene Upshaw, head of the NFL Players Association, is still having problems convincing the players that the salary cap is a good idea.

He met with the Philadelphia Eagles last week, but failed to mollify them.

After the meeting, players complained about the graphs he showed them to defend the salary cap.